Thinking Tools on a USB key?

Posted by Gary N
Mar 31, 2007 at 07:45 PM

I need some thinking-tools that can be run from a USB key. I’m a government lawyer with a need to gather and store documents and then draw on them for complex legal briefs and memoranda. Unfortunately, I can’t add software to my office computer, and it has little besides the MS Office suite—without OneNote—on it. So I’m looking for applications like those discussed here that can be run from a USB key. There must be others here in the same boat, or who just want the portability of an application that can go from home to office on a key chain.

So far, my list includes:
Ultra Recall
EverNote
Essential PIM

What else is there? I have heard about some efforts to make USB keys work for more applications that ordinarily would not be portable. There is U3 technology, for instance, though I don’t quite know what it is. And over at the Zoot forum, someone wrote triumphantly that he made Zoot work from a USB key by using “MojoPac, a new USB portable platform.” Unfortunately, it appears that MojoPac works only if you have administrator’s rights on the underlying PC, so that’s no help. At EverNote, I read that “EverNote is shipped pre-loaded on all Lexar® USB flash drives that come with the PowerToGo™ portable software platform.” So I looked up this PowerToGo software, but I can’t tell whether it works for much more than a few select programs they have listed at their site. A site called http://www.everythingusb.com had a review of some of these technologies, but I didn’t see one that thrilled them.

So I summon the braintrust here. Anything I left out? Any other ideas?

Gary